Another Dandilyonn Year: 2019

By: Ojaswee Chaudhary

​Mission: This year, Dandilyonn decided our goal would be to equip fellow teenagers with their own tools to make change. After a few years of hosting a variety of fundraisers and events which directly impacted our surroundings, we felt that our purpose in the community should shift towards showing others how they could take initiative on their own. We fulfilled this purpose with the following projects:

SEEDS 2019

Through SEEDS 2019, the Dandilyonn team dipped our toes into a different, inspiring world. Our SEEDS director Archana Chaudhary encountered two issues that she set out to address: the need to spread climate change awareness and the lack of experience in college students looking for engineering jobs. Using design thinking, she put together a rigorous yet exciting 10 week challenge for the summer. Young collegiate women across the United States worked in teams to design applications that targeted a specific climate change issues and the results were incredible! 

Download our runner ups’ app from the app store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ecocritters/id1476370562

Kathak Solo Fundraisers

One of our Dandilyonn Co-Founders, Ojaswee Chaudhary, embarked on the journey of preparing for her very first Kathak solo called “Meri Bhavna”. In her solo she encouraged her audience to apply the principles of acceptance and universal love in their lives, including a love for one’s planet. Using the funds for her solo, she donated $3000 to the eco-friendly initiative of the College of Adaptive Arts as they moved into a new building. At the end of 2018, Shreeya Indap, another Co-Founder had also performed her first Kathak solo named “Sol”. One of the meanings of the word sol is the sun, and she applied this by donating the funds of her solo to a school in India who desired to make their facility more eco-friendly. Through these fundraisers, Dandilyonn is slowly pushing our community to make concrete changes to help save our planet.

Annual Art in the Park Booth

Every year, Dandilyonn participates in the Fremont Cultural Art Council’s Art in the Park Fair. The event invites families all over the Bay Area to learn about various STEAM topics while having a blast. This was our 3rd year being a part of the event and, in order to stimulate growth, we brought in new activities such as a climate change board game and a nature story time. This event allows us to expand our Dandilyonn community, inspire children to care for our planet at their young age, and provide volunteers with leadership and people skills.

Now, as our year comes to a close, we would like to thank you so much for supporting our endeavors and showing that you care about our planet! Dandilyonn began as a method of making positive change in our world so that we all and our future generations can live better lives. It is vital that we continue to spread awareness about climate change and we encourage you to prioritize our planet in this next decade and era. If we team up as a community and pledge to consistently think about our actions and their effects on our planet, we can truly create impact.

For more information on how to support/volunteer for/work with Dandilyonn, visit our website dandilyonn.com, our Facebook @dandilyonn.co, and our Instagram @dandilyonn. Thank you so much and have a happy new year!
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